Forgotten SNES game... Dirt Trax FX
I'm facinated with SNES games that have extra processing chips in them. Absolutely facinated.
Most everyone into the SNES is familiar with Star Fox (FX1 processor) but very few people know about Dirt Trax FX.
Dirt Trax FX came out in 1995, the same year the Saturn and PSX were released. It was programmed by Sculptured Software (who also did DOOM, Super Star Wars, and Mortal Kombat II) and was released by Acclaim (deceased.)
Dirt Trax FX received some pretty shitty reviews when it first came out. Here's why...
1. The graphics of Dirt Trax FX compared poorly with other polygonal offerings on the 3DO, Saturn, and PSX.
2. The music sucked ass.
3. The characters sucked ass.
3. Anything that was displayed on screen BESIDES THE ACTUAL RACES was ugly and horrible.
These features were enough for most gamers, and Dirt Trax FX was largely ignored by the gaming public and has been mostly forgotten. This is a shame, because the actual gameplay is pretty darned fun.
Dirt Trax FX used the second edition of the FX chip, called FX2. It augmented the slow processor in the SNES enough so that the SNES could compute simple 3-D graphics. In essense, the chip helped the SNES push many more polygons than the SNES could do on its own.
The tracks in DTFX are fully polygonal... they are simple flat-shaded affairs with simple geometry, but they are true 3-D nevertheless. They look like ass today, but you have to look at the hardware that's pumping these graphics out... this stuff is darned impressive by SNES standards. The players and background graphics are sprite-based, but that's true of many 3-D games running on better hardware. Everythihg moves at a steady clip with no slowdown.
DTFX has what is quite possibly the worst selection of characters I have ever seen. Your character select screen is so awful it's hilarious... you get to pick from 8 cheesy character heads floating randomly in space with names like "Raven" and "Talon." No one has a special bike, and no character attributes are available. Just a head that smiles or scowls when you choose it and away you go. I have no idea if any racer has an advantage over any other racer, be it speed, handling, acceleration, or whatnot... perhaps the manual gives an indication, but I doubt it.
Each dreadful character has his or her own attrocious music. The tracks loops over and over again through each race. The only time the music (and its just flat-out awful... every tune) changes is when you fall to 2nd place or below and then your music is overlaid with a gloriously irritating track that wills you to retake 1st least your ears start to bleed. Seriously, folks, this is some seriously dreadful music and must be heard to be truly appreciated.
You can choose from three levels of difficulty. The 1st is super-easy, the 2nd is challenging, and the 3rd is impossible, which is why I have no idea if you get a good ending with the hard level or not. The ending for the other two levels suck... you get to see your floating head sitting on some triple block stages where each head is slightly higher than the other, with the winning head sitting on the tallest block in the middle (like the Olympics.) Then the game just goes back to the title screen.
The sound effects are gruesome. Grunts, horns, and itchy-scratchy sounds. That's it. My farts sound nicer.
So far, the only thing I've said nice about this game is that the graphics look pretty good for a machine that had no real 3-D capabilities and had to have the help of a chip to make the simplest of polygons. Every color is garish and bright, and things are just a mess by today's standards.
So why do I like it?
This weird game controls like a dream. It's like a 3-D Excitebike with fantastic steering and jumping. You use the shoulder buttons to turn sharply, and the game responds to you inputs instantly and in a way that "just feels right." I plug in this game again and again just to feel how well it PLAYS.
There you have it. In a nutshell... Stunt Race FX looks quite bad by todays standards, sounds terrible by ANY standards, has a menu interface that's a textbook example of ugliness taken to a new hellish level, and gameplay that manages to make you forget the awful presentation, dreadful music, and dated graphics.
I love this ugly, terrible-sounding game.
So there.
By the way... I have yet to see an emulator that will play this game. SNES emulation is still spotty, and the FX2 chip has yet to be emulated correctly. If you play it on an emulator you'll end up hating it, so if you are truly curious about Stunt Trax FX you should pick one up on Ebay... there's a Buy-It-Now on there right now for a whole $1.50.
Cheers!
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Iron Draggon
